Posted on 11/19/2014 5:57:50 AM PST by Theoria
Masai told to leave historic homeland by end of the year so it can become a hunting reserve for the Dubai royal family
Tanzania has been accused of reneging on its promise to 40,000 Masai pastoralists by going ahead with plans to evict them and turn their ancestral land into a reserve for the royal family of Dubai to hunt big game.
Activists celebrated last year when the government said it had backed down over a proposed 1,500 sq km “wildlife corridor” bordering the Serengeti national park that would serve a commercial hunting and safari company based in the United Arab Emirates.
Now the deal appears to be back on and the Masai have been ordered to quit their traditional lands by the end of the year. Masai representatives will meet the prime minister, Mizengo Pinda, in Dodoma on Tuesday to express their anger. They insist the sale of the land would rob them of their heritage and directly or indirectly affect the livelihoods of 80,000 people. The area is crucial for grazing livestock on which the nomadic Masai depend.
Unlike last year, the government is offering compensation of 1 billion shillings (£369,350), not to be paid directly but to be channelled into socio-economic development projects. The Masai have dismissed the offer.
“I feel betrayed,” said Samwel Nangiria, co-ordinator of the local Ngonett civil society group. “One billion is very little and you cannot compare that with land. It’s inherited. Their mothers and grandmothers are buried in that land. There’s nothing you can compare with it.”
Nangiria said he believes the government never truly intended to abandon the scheme in the Loliondo district but was wary of global attention. “They had to pretend they were dropping the agenda to fool the international press.”
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Not really GGG, but Masai ping.
I’ve heard that the Masai bushmen wear these great sandals!
Kids, this is the country named for Lord Greystoke, or “Tarzan: Lord of the Rings”.
One of the Masai manhood ceremonies used to involve killing a lion. I don’t think the Dubai guys understand the Masai definition of a “hunting preserve”. Hunting humans has to be a lot easier than lions.
Thank goodness Cliven Bundy doesn’t live in Tanzania, or the government might steal his land for its own purposes.
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